The Pelham City Council is instituting a one-year moratorium on payday and title loan businesses, pawn shops, tobacco establishments and certain other business types from opening. (Martin J. Reed / mreed@al.com)

PELHAM, Alabama -- Declaring them "detrimental" to development, the Pelham City Council tonight issued a one-year moratorium on payday and title loan businesses, check-cashing establishments, pawn shops and certain other business types.

The action does not affect any existing businesses of the type listed under the moratorium from continuing to operate. "This is nothing more than what other municipalities have put forward in Jefferson and Shelby County," Councilman Ron Scott said at tonight's meeting.

"No one who is currently in business today will be put out of business. Nobody who is in business today will have difficulty in receiving a new business license to continue to do business. None of these actions will have any effect on our cash flow" for the city, Scott said.

The resolution states the council "finds that over-development" of the specified businesses "would be detrimental to the City's development and effectively limit the ability of the City to attract diverse types of business."

Scott noted concerns about proliferation of the businesses on Highway 31 through Pelham. "We've had multiple people in the retail development arena tell us we need to look at and evaluate what this business corridor on 31 looks like" if the city wants to recruit new businesses, he said.

Pelham plans to reassess zoning ordinances pertaining to the specific businesses and an overall master plan for the city. Scott said the municipality wants to hear from the public and the business owners.

"We just need a year to pause and do some analysis and gather some information," Scott said. "Hopefully after one year we will have some answers and be able to put together a plan. ... This will not be the last attention paid to this issue by this body over the next 365 days."

Council President Rick Hayes said the issue is an opportunity for the Pelham Planning Commission and the newly formed Commercial Development Authority to explore possible ways to handle the opening of new businesses.

"We just don't want to become too far down one path," Hayes said. It's an opportunity to develop plans for "what's going to be in the best interest of Pelham long term."